The great battle of the Norwegian wedding bands

The Hellbillies take on Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars

Hellbillies

Photo: Agnete Brun / NTB scanpix
The Hellbillies are one of Norway’s most popular groups—especially at weddings.

The Norwegian American

As the sole Norwegian group, the Hellbillies are strong contenders in the great Norwegian wedding song contest, along with international names such as Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, John Legend, and Beyoncé.

Yes, people have managed to get married during the age of the coronavirus, and now the streaming service Spotify has looked at the listening trends for the big day, based on the playlists created.

At the top of the wedding playlists in Norway, are the fabulous four artists listed above, with the Hellbillies in a strong fifth place ahead of Christina Perri, Adele, Ellie Goulding, Dan + Shay, and Elton John.

When it comes to the most popular song on the Norwegian wedding playlists, Hellbillies are in a solid third place with “Den finast eg veit”—“The finest I know”—which dates back to 1999, now featured regularly in the TV program “Love without borders.”

New in the pandemic year are playlists that have titles with words like “Zoom,” “Virtual” and “Micro-Wedding” in the titles. The “Collaborative Playlist” feature, which allows friends and loved ones to create shared playlists, has also been popular on the wedding front: 600,000 such playlists have been created.

The average length of playlists with wedding themes created by users is 2 hours and 17 minutes, which is around 35 songs, according to Spotify.

The Great Norwegian Wedding Playlist

10 top artists
1. Ed Sheeran
2. Bruno Mars
3. John Legend
4. Beyoncé
5. Hellbillies
6. Christina Perri
7. Adele
8. Ellie Goulding
9. Dan + Shay
10. Elton John

10 top streamed tunes
1. Bruno Mars, “Marry You”
2. Christina Perri, “A Thousand Years”
3. Hellbillies, “Den finast eg veit”
4. John Legend, “All of Me”
5. Ed Sheeran, “Perfect”
6. Ed Sheeran, “Thinking out Loud”
7. Whitney Houston, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”
8. Adele, “Make You Feel My Love”
9. Ellie Goulding, “How Long Will I Love You”
10. Bruno Mars, “Just the Way You Are”

Click here to check out the Hellbillies perfrom”Den finast eg veit.”

This article originally appeared in the March 12, 2021, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.

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